Wednesday, November 09, 2005

From The Ground - Week Five Date Night

This week's date night took place in Anaheim. I was on business in the LA area and Marc's pass allowed him to join me for the Friday evening. I had been to the Disney resort in California about 18 months ago and was eager to go again.

Marc was not impressed with the drive from LAX to Anaheim for two reasons; firstly, it's Los Angeles, so a 30 mile drive takes an hour and a half at 5pm on a friday, and second, my rental car, a Chevy Aveo, did not impress him...at all.

I must first explain that I am a travel snob. I want to sit in 1A on every flight I take. The only airline I will make an exception for is Singapore Airlines as I find their Raffles Class product fantastic. In terms of hotels, if my room number is not preceded with the word "suite", I am not happy. But with rental cars...I just don't care. You can rent me a 25 year old Le Car and it doesn't matter to me. I only love one car - and that's the one I own. I wouldn't trade it for the world, so when it comes to renting a compact or an intermediate - whatever - doesn't matter. Marc wasn't impressed with the ride - even when I pushed it to 145kph on the freeway. Even I was worried that some of the Aveo's plastic bits were going melt from the speed.

We went to Downtown Disney for dinner at Tortilla Joe's, and walk around the shops. My big purchase was a candy apple which later that evening I decided to consume before I went to bed. Now, for those of you that do not regularly consume the equivalent of a ten pound bag of sugar before you go to sleep, you will understand the tummy ache I had all night. Even the next morning, I showered, dressed and was out of the room in search of toast and tea, even before Marc knew what day it was. The sugar hangover I had was unbelievable. It lasted all the way to the airport, and I must have looked like hell because as I entered the Alaska Boardroom they just looked at me and asked, "Advil or Tylenol?".

Yup - you didn't read incorrectly. Alaska Airlines MVP Gold. That's right! I have NO status on Air Canada...would've been Prestige this year, but they changed the rules on me. So I give my money to Alaska..correction - I give my employers money to Alaska.

i made prestige the year i was still living in cali and flying to toronto everymonth to see my gf( now spouse). Since we live halfway between TO and DTW, I now fly out of DTW on NW because its a lot cheaper. AC is so expensive.